Obama Names Google, Microsoft Execs to Science Panel

President Obama on Monday unveiled his science and technology advisory council, a list that includes a number of academics, as well as Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie.

President Obama on Monday unveiled his science and technology advisory council, a list that includes a number of academics, as well as Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie.

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is an advisory group intended to help the president and vice president develop tech-related policies. It was founded by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

John Holdren, who was confirmed last month as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), will serve as PCAST co-chair with Eric Lander, a Harvard and MIT professor and principal leader of the Human Genome Project, and Harold Varmus, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

"This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a diversity of experience and views," Obama said in a statement. "I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation."

The 20-person committee also includes Google's Schmidt, who was an early Obama supporter and served on the president's transition team.

"I'm honored to have this opportunity to advise President Obama and Vice President Biden on science and technology policy," Microsoft's Mundie said in a statement. "I look forward to working with other members of the council to determine how science and technology can help address some of the nation's biggest challenges."

Mundie served on President Clinton's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, and he joined the Task Force on National Security in the Information Age in 2002. He has also served on the Council on Foreign Relations since February 2002.

Also on Monday, Obama announced a new blog intended to spur conversation and public comment regarding the president's March memo on scientific integrity.

"On March 9, I signed an executive memorandum with a clear message: Under my administration, the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over. Our progress as a nation - and our values as a nation - are rooted in free and open inquiry. To undermine scientific integrity is to undermine our democracy. It is contrary to our way of life," Obama said.

The blog will allow "individuals to not only make recommendations to achieve this goal, but to collaborate on those recommendations," he said.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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